A projector for modulating light emitted from a discharge light source lamp and projecting the modulated light is provided with a light source lighting device, which performs a predetermined starting operation (application of an ignition pulse), thereby starting lighting of the light source lamp (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Publication No. 2008-123785). If the light source lamp does not light (turn on) after the starting operation is continued for a predetermined period of time, the light source lighting device performs the starting operation again after a predetermined idle period (interval), and thereafter repeats this operation until the light source lamp lights. Therefore, various conditions (e.g., an applied voltage, a pulse width, an application period of time of each operation, and a length of the interval) of the starting operation are set to be the optimum conditions based on experimental results so as not to repeat the starting operation many times.
However, since the conditions most appropriate to light the light source lamp are different in accordance with the variations (individual differences) in characteristics of the light source lamp and the light source lighting device, temporal changes, and operation environment, the situation that the starting operation needs to be repeatedly performed many times might occur in some projectors. In such a case, much time is consumed before the light source lamp is lit, which causes the user to wait.